The present invention concerns an apparatus and a process for producing spherically shaped products from a pasty material like sausage meat, dough or the like.
The invention concerns, in particular, an apparatus comprising at least one feed device for moving the pasty material along a conveyor path, a portioning device connected downstream of the feed device for shaping the pasty material into balls, and a transport device for discharging the balls produced by means of the portioning device.
Known apparatuses and processes are used in particular for the production of products from a pasty material, wherein a large number of products of the same size and shape are made from the pasty material like for example sausage meat or dough. The products made like for example meat balls or croquettes are frequently to be carried away directly after production thereof by means of a transport device for subsequent further processing or for packaging thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,797,069 or EP Patent No. 0194863 discloses an apparatus for producing three-dimensionally shaped, spherical products from a pasty material, which has a feed device for the material which is to be moved along a conveyor path. Connected or arranged downstream of the feed device is a portioning device, by means of which a plurality of balls are frequently produced at the same time from the unshaped pasty, in particular dough-like, product flow. For that purpose the portioning device has two cutting plates each having a plurality of through apertures, of which one of the plates is displaceably mounted. By virtue of the conveyor movement of the pasty material through the feed device and the relative movement of the cutting plates with respect to each other, spherical products, in particular sausage meat balls, are produced at predetermined time intervals. The meat or dough products produced drop on to a conveyor belt or a conveyor device having transport trays, with which the balls produced are carried away.
On the known apparatuses however, when processing in particular very sticky doughs or also meat products, at the end of the cutting or shaping process by the portioning device, under some circumstances the balls to be produced are irregularly detached from the cutting plates. Irregular detachment then results in a random arrangement of the products on the conveyor belt or in the trays of the conveyor device. The random or disordered arrangement of the balls on the conveyor belt or the trays in turn causes difficulty in regard to further processing, in particular possible packaging, of the spherical products which have been discharged. Product flows which are produced in that way either have to be aligned by hand or they can only be transferred or introduced into the packs intended for same, by using a complicated and expensive multi-tray loader.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a process for producing and discharging shapable products, with which the discharged products can be advantageously arranged.